Re: [gpsd-dev] PPS over USB

[Jim Thompson]

On May 7, 2012, at 6:03 AM, Ed W <address@hidden> wrote:

> Further sob story: I spend something like 6-9 months getting a new product 
> added to their catalogue (it's *SERIOUSLY* hard to get a new item added 
> unless you have a pre-allocated unique part number for it (I forget the name 
> for this number now)).

International Article Number (or UPC) or EAN (European Article Number).  The 
cost real money.

http://www.gs1us.org/get-started/i-need-a-barcode

"The initial fee can be as low as $760 for up to 100 barcodes. Your initial 
registration fee licenses the prefix to you for one year. After that, you’ll 
pay a small annual renewal fee to continue using the company prefix for your 
barcodes."

Translated, you can buy a "company prefix" with address space for up to 100 
codes, for $760.  GS1-US started imposing a renewal fee in 2002, too.  You'll 
pay for your code(s) year over year.

There are brokers who will dole these out, but they're not cheap.

Amazon runs on IANs.   (We have several.  :-)

>  Finally got the part added, had to pay them £20/month to be a premium store 
> during all that time, then we finally sold three items of the new part, one 
> week later we got an email saying that Amazon no longer wanted to trade with 
> us and that our account would be closed...

We've sold tens of thousands of a LEGO-compatible iPhone 4/4S case via Amazon.  
 We've sold more than this via other channels.  

Dealing with Amazon is a nearly 1/2-time job.   Worth it if you're going to 
move some serious volume, possibly not without the volume.
(We also sell a metric ton of Alix boards & cases every month, and choose to 
*NOT* sell these via Amazon.)

We've not yet discussed "returns", either.

> Now here is the interesting part - without a vendor login to amazon you can 
> no longer even phone them (wierd, but it's how they structure their 
> business).  So they currently have £2,500 (about $4,000) of my money and I 
> have no way to phone/email and ask for it back - their general channels 
> refuse any attempts to negotiate and decline to pass a message - emails to 
> the correct department are never replied to.

Perhaps Eric's contact can be of some assist.  (?)